Sunday, December 5, 2010

[ALT: According to a new paper published in the journal Science, reporters are unable to thrive in an arsenic-rich environment.]

I liked this one. It's very timely (first time for everything), not particularly political or preachy (so it's just riffing on a current event instead of Having Opinions on it, and as you all know, I detest opinions in all their forms). Most of all, I liked the last panel. It doesn't spell out the joke, and has a nice moment of double-take. It's almost like Randy learned how to make a punchline or something.

So of course he goes and fucks up and explains it with the alt text. It's like Randy is allergic to doing something right. The poor fucker must live in terror that someone might not get his joke, so he makes sure to explain it somewhere. Any time he has something subtle, he pauses for effect after and leans in close and says "I don't know if you noticed, but the joke there is that X."

Okay, seriously, I think the humor from this comic was supposed to be derived from making the audience envisioning their parents having sex. I'm pretty sure I've seen that joke before, and this comic doesn't really spin it in a new and interesting way, other than, "Hey, genetic tests! That's nerdy, amirite?"

Important question! Am I mistaken, or does 829 mark the first appearance of Long Curly Hair Girl? Does this mean he's moved on from Megan and Blonde Ponytail, or that he's added another woman to his stalker's rolodex?

Why would the scientists serve arsenic? The punchline doesn't work because the joke makes absolutely no sense-- it's not just that it's unexpected, it's that the idea of "oh well let's feed them poison" is so radically divorced from reality that the joke falls flat on its face.

@KayB: Um.... I'd say it was "lol Randy forgot how to draw again" except that character is persistently lumpy. The hell, Randall? Is this relevant? Is that just the "character"? I do not know and after 5 minute I will no longer care, nor will I want to. >.>

@Jasper: I suppose if we were generous we'd take your interpretation and counter with "But that is exactly how radically divorced SCIENTISTS are from reality! heyoooooo", which is enough of a cultural meme that it's half-acceptable. Not saying the comic is great, but it follows the textbook formula and comes out like a joke from an 80-year old textbook which still uses diacritic marks. "Yes," we say, "we understand that this joke is structured correctly, and upon this style a proper joke may be formulated, but a proper joke this is not, since it is only an example". So Randall has made a joke that is a template of a real joke.... so yeah, we're giving him credit because at least it doesn't have a vagina on it?

@KayB: Um.... I'd say it was "lol Randy forgot how to draw again" except that character is persistently lumpy. The hell, Randall? Is this relevant? Is that just the "character"? I do not know and after 5 minute I will no longer care, nor will I want to. >.>

You guys all remind me of Andrew Shirvell. I imagine you look and sound just like him. You have the same attitude - that of a self-righteous loser -and the same stalking issues. I can't imagine why you continue to spew here: it only makes you look pathetic, only without the, well, pathos. I'm not interested in your rationalizations of why you do this, but your psychiatric pathology is pretty interesting, in a morbid kind of way. For your own sake, consider getting a life and actually creating something.

Weird. I'm not sure what about my post would cause it to be flagged. I'll try a shorter version.

The joke for 830 isn't that the parents had sex. It's playing with expectations. Seeing a comic about genetic tests makes you think he's going to get news about a genetic disease. Then, he's told something that would be discovered by genetic tests, but that isn't what you thought he'd be told.

I liked 829 as well, so I was hoping you'd think it was funny, Rob. xkcd has actually made me chuckle a couple times in the last two weeks. -but why are people commenting about comic 830 on the blog post for 829?

The only creation I posted here was our moon exploding, I do not know what that means from a psychiatric point of view, Anon107, but at least it's more interesting than anonymously accusing people on the internet of not having lives. ANON107, please stop and analyze your behaviour: You are a fear prisoner. Yes, you are a product of fear.

Bella Swan--> Beautiful Swan. Don't over-think it too much, this whole series did all start as some sort of weird sex fantasy in a glade. Also, Dracula clearly wasn't a real vampire --- he could never have played baseball.

I find it hilarious that the majority of people commenting on this blog (perhaps including myself) are every bit as annoyingly elitist and unfunny as our good pal, Randy. I mean, look at all that biting smartassery. Look at it! :D

Anyway, for the record I thought this one was actually funny. Scientists make a discovery, it gets blown up by the media, and the poor scientists haven't experienced enough human interaction to resolve the situation. In trying to find a solution, they blindly follow some online tips without considering the consequences. This is comedy. As for the alt text, it doesn't so much explain the joke as use the situation to add on to it by making reference to the original predicament, in my opinion. Didn't mind it at all.

"I find it hilarious that the majority of people commenting on this blog (perhaps including myself) are every bit as annoyingly elitist and unfunny as our good pal, Randy. I mean, look at all that biting smartassery. Look at it! :D"

Don't worry. I was like you a few months ago and now look at me. You'll get over it.

830 looks like Randall has been reading the SMBC archives, bumped into a "parents have sex too!" comic that Zach ACTUALLY DID RIGHT and thought "Hmm, I can do that too, but NERDY!!".

What the hell is this?

Welcome. This is a website called XKCD SUCKS which is about the webcomic xkcd and why we think it sucks. My name is Carl and I used to write about it all the time, then I stopped because I went insane, and now other people write about it all the time. I forget their names. The posts still seem to be coming regularly, but many of the structural elements - like all the stuff in this lefthand pane - are a bit outdated. What can I say? Insane, etc.

I started this site because it had been clear to me for a while that xkcd is no longer a great webcomic (though it once was). Alas, many of its fans are too caught up in the faux-nerd culture that xkcd is a part of, and can't bring themselves to admit that the comic, at this point, is terrible. While I still like a new comic on occasion, I feel that more and more of them need the Iron Finger of Mockery knowingly pointed at them. This used to be called "XKCD: Overrated", but then it fell from just being overrated to being just horrible. Thus, xkcd sucks.

Here is a comic about me that Ann made. It is my favorite thing in the world.

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